Feminism, like most social movements, has been marred by ugly episodes of exclusion in its past. First Wave Feminism, known for its achievement of getting women the right to vote with the Nineteenth Amendment, was known to be racist. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, one of the leading voices of the women’s suffrage movement, believed white, educated women such as herself were more deserving of the right to vote than African-American men; she was also very dismissive of the plight of African-American women. Second Wave Feminism, which took place from the early 1960s to the early 1980s, was homophobic in nature. Betty Friedan, president of the National Organization for Women (NOW), reportedly referred to lesbian feminists as the “lavender menace.” Heterosexual feminists believed including lesbians would give credibility to the notion that feminists were man-hating lesbians and would cripple their ability to enact lasting political change. NOW also refused to include lesbians in its official platforms. This exclusion of lesbian feminists led to radical splinter groups that focused on removing male influence in society. Today’s feminism has been plagued by episodes of transphobia. Transgender women have been excluded from the conversation on how to advance women’s rights because they are not “women born.” The fact that there is a segment of feminism referred to as “trans-exclusionary” radical feminism (TERF) is abhorrent.

All this to say, Senator Gillibrand is right; feminism doesn’t have a unifying platform. That being said, there are many issues where all feminists can find common ground. Feminists can unify behind ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment because amending the Constitution to guarantee equal rights to women is something all feminists can agree on. Feminists can rally around abortion rights and affirming Roe v. Wade because you cannot be a pro-life feminist. Feminists can work for universal education for young girls and ending child marriage and female genital mutilation (FGM). While the women’s movement has been successful recently in fighting back against the onslaught of abortion restrictions, attacks on birth control, and lack of action on equal pay, we could take a lesson from the successful gay rights movement by uniting behind common causes to move progress forward.

The situation is more dire in Mississippi as the fate of the last remaining abortion clinic will be determined by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. The Jackson Women’s Health Organization has two doctors fly in from out of state to provide abortion care. Like Texas, Mississippi law requires providers to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the clinic. So far, the two doctors have been denied privileges at 13 hospitals.

On the national level, the GOP-controlled House has tried repeatedly to ban federal funding for abortion since 2010. The infamous “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act” would have banned all insurance plans in the Affordable Care Act marketplace from covering abortion, force small businesses to pay extra taxes for offering health insurance that included abortion coverage to their employees, and eliminate the ability to charge abortion as a medical expense under IRS codes unless in cases of rape, incest, or maternal health. Essentially, the IRS would get to determine what constituted rape and incest by auditing victims for potential tax fraud.

If men were the ones giving birth, would we really still be having this debate 41 years later? If you don’t think voting matters, just remember this wave of attacks on women’s reproductive rights began after the surge of Tea Party candidates won in 2010, and we can vote them out in November.